How To Deal With Relationship Pet Peeves

Is Your Partner's Annoying Habit No Big Deal Or A Deal Breaker?

In Seinfeld, it was a running joke that Jerry would frequently reject women he was dating for completely ridiculous reasons: having man hands, wearing the same dress every day, having a bad laugh, being a low talker. It made for hilarious TV. But I’ve dumped a guy because he thought it was fine to fart around strangers, work associates, and...whomever.

Of course, his refusal to control his bodily functions was the tiny tip of a huge iceberg of ways that we were incompatible. It wasn’t really about that one issue, it’s just much funnier to say that our breakup was about his flatulence and not the fact that we looked at life differently and didn’t respect how the other person did.

But what do you do when you fall in love with someone only to find that one of their habits, personality traits, or quirks makes you want to tear your hair out? When is love enough to conquer your annoyance and when is that annoyance a sign from your subconscious that things aren’t as wonderful as you thought they were? Let’s go through a few different annoyance levels a partner can provoke and discuss how each type can affect a relationship.